One of the few positive sides of the pandemic is that it’s helped us relearn to love the outdoors. The strict distancing guidelines in place to reduce COVID-19 transmission force us to plan any sizable gatherings outside. At Dartmouth, we’re blessed with beautiful natural surroundings, lots of green space and an institutional bent toward nature. However, we’re also blessed with somewhat tumultuous weather.
The ritual of packing and unpacking has always marked the beginning of college. Students pack up their lives at home — at least mostly — and arrive on campus to start a new life for the next nine months. Their dorms, which were stark, undecorated bedrooms just days prior, are given a new life and personality by the things these students bring.
For many incoming LGBTQ+ students, their identity will add one more layer of disruption to a fall already full of unknowns.
This spring, the Black Lives Matter movement swept across the United States and the world. Millions of Americans attended protests, donated money, posted on social media and signed petitions.
The completion of a Dartmouth education means many things: celebration, new opportunities and hopefully the joyful acknowledgement of four transformative years. As Commencement rolls around, our natural inclination is to reflect on how Dartmouth changed us. However, I find it equally valuable to examine the ways in which we changed Dartmouth.
It’s a little early in my academic career for me to be writing a reflection piece about choosing my major. I’ve only been a Dartmouth student for two-and-a-half terms, and I just submitted my first D-Plan. But strangely, it feels like I’ve been in the process of choosing my major for years.
Despite having hours of alone time and access to a seemingly endless stream of inspirational posts about self-improvement in quarantine, I’ve found myself more stressed than ever. And as it turns out, I’m not alone.
If this pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that when duty calls, medical professionals answer. From a whistleblower physician in Wuhan to front-line hospital staff in New York City, doctors, nurses and countless other medical workers have taken center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These days, it can feel like the coronavirus pandemic is the only topic in the news. It’s understandable, given the massive human toll and global scale of the crisis. However, I, for one, have started scouring the internet for any hint of good news. And I’ve found a source of hope in reports that as humanity lives in quarantine, the health of the environment is improving: There is more and more news now of clearer waters, better air quality and a decrease in pollution.
Coming home for spring term means leaving many things behind at Dartmouth. Almost all students had to abandon campus, in-person classes, sports teams and social groups, all of which are losses we feel acutely. For members of the LGBTQ community, coming home can also mean abandoning or hiding entire components of their identity.
The Dartmouth: Through the Ages presents a curated collection of the newspaper's archives from 1900 to the present.
